So December was a huge month for searches for the site. The growth was unprecedented and I’m over the moon with how much Google love I am receiving.

My most popular page this month in terms of garnering search traffic was Has Christmas Become too Commercial?. It ranked number 1 in google for the better part of a week leading up to Christmas and gained almost half of my search results. Unfortunately my bounce rate was quite high and I have fallen way down the ranking with that page. I suspect January will have a much smaller amount of search traffic than December.

Spending

For the month of December we spent $1,989 (excluding our mortgage repayments) which was $693 better than we did for November. Considering we went through Christmas in December this is a really great effort.

Mortgage

Variable Loan

October debt reduction – $872
November debt reduction – $1,361

Principal at Debt at the start of December -$31,546
Principal at Debt at the end of December -$31,157

December debt reduction – $389

Fixed Loan

October debt reduction – $7,419November debt reduction – $8,308

Principal at Start of December – $81,842
Principal at End of December – $79,300

December debt reduction – $2542

You can keep track of my mortgage payment progress here – My Debt Progress (The graph is starting to really look good on the second loan, hover over the lines to see the dollar figures)

Baby

Nothing much new to report here. My wife is getting bigger and his last day inside is scheduled for the 16th of January. My piece and quite will be shattered soon.

Mobile Application

I did great on the mobile application this month and I managed to complete 15 levels, which was 5 more than I had planned. Hopefully this app can be ready by the end of February.

January Goals

Blogging

Post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Get to 500 Twitter followers

Get to 1,300 Facebook followers

Comment on other blogs at least twice per day

Be an active member on a blog I don’t currently visit regularly

Guest post on at least 1 site

Personal

Continue to track every bit of mine and my wife’s spending

Complete 15 levels in my mobile application

Other

Study for my MCSE upgrade certification at least 1 module a day. (This is a massive task, but hopefully I can get it done)

Survive being a first time dad…

Cleanup my desk and the wardrobe

Get a spoon display case for my nan.

2013 Goals

As this is the first goal post of 2013, I want to jot down some broad long term goals for the year.

Publish the joint eBook

Publish my mobile application on both the Apple Store and Google Play

Start a savings account for our son

Spend more time play games and enjoying life

Donate more to charity (particularly cancer charities)

Grow Monster Piggy Bank into an incredible resource for people looking for help with their finances

Grow all of my other websites

Get our total debt down to under $90,000

Earn at least $5,000 in side income

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It’s good to see that you accomplished most of your goals. Your Alexa rank went up alot in the past couple of months. Have a great 2013!Brett @ wstreetstocks recently posted..Invest in 3D Printing Stocks

Your increase in Alexa rankings and Google search traffic bodes well! I’m pretty impressed with your spending for December too! That’s a great result even if it doesn’t include your mortgage payments. Did you do a fair bit of your Christmas shopping before December? Ours was way higher than that and we were being pretty frugal – or so I thought!James @ Free in Ten Years recently posted..The hidden psychological stress of work and why I want out

Your monthly reviews are pretty dang impressive…that’s a lot of stuff to track and subsequently put in a blog post for all to see! Best of luck on your 2013 goals. I am hitting the ground running and expect to be incredibly busy until my vacation in early February where I will be forced to stay offline for a week because I will be outside the country 🙂DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted..How to Know the True Value of a Home

I was wondering if my stats tracker was accurate after my November numbers were so big, so I installed a few more tracking apps and got my web host to put some tracking on the server. For December there were a few differences but they all came out close enough, so I assume it’s accurate.

I’m not really sure how there are so many hit’s, although I do comment on a lot of blogs and news sites.

Glen, you are doing quite well for yourself over there. I am honored that you have included me in your list of sites to stop by and comment on. I have appreciated your comments and hope you continue to chime in.

The growth of your blog in such a short amount of time is amazing! 1,693 new visitors in one month is amazing. I’m looking forward to watching your blog continue to grow, and watching for an announcement that the little one is here.

Awesome Glen, well done! Have you thought about doing more Australian posts to grow your blog? I don’t know many PF blogs but in the UK there are a few that perform very well due to local searches (bargains, taxes…). Glad to hear you are ready to take a gazillion pictures of VB!Pauline recently posted..13 money resolutions for 2013: #2 trim the fat!

I have thought about more Australian posts, but I have become so disillusioned with Australia lately that I don’t really want to post anything too wonderful about this country at the moment. At the same time I don’t want to bag it out either because I know how great it can be.

Glen,
Those are some pretty impressive Alexa rankings! Your change from the beginning of October to the end of December is great! I have been tracking my own Alexa ranking and still a little above the 5,000,000 mark but hope to be lower by the end of the month.
David LandenDavid Landen recently posted..December 2012 Monthly Income Report

I don’t really put too much emphasis on the whole Alexa rank thing as it is easily manipulated. I rather see my social media accounts and RSS feeds / subscriber count going up as this tells me that people are interested enough in my site to sign up to hear more from me.

Wow, Glen, you are hovering dangerously close to that 100,000 threshold! (I am nipping right behind you, at 125,000. No idea how I’ve managed to keep pushing my rank down considering my sporadic posting the last couple of weeks.) You seriously have been kicking major tushie. Aaaand, Vanilla Bean soon. Poor Ricky better enjoy lounging with his Daddy while he still can, because soon his Daddy won’t be getting much rest. 😛Jennifer Lynn @ Broke-Ass Mommy recently posted..Buried by spam (and other hullabaloo)

I think lots of people keep checking your page thinking “Jennifer must have posted something by now”. I know I check it every morning when I get up.
I want to make sure I spend lots of time with Rick when Vanilla Bean makes his arrival as I don’t want a green eyed dog.

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